When only ten years old, his father delivered him up as a hostage to Dermod Mac Murehad, King of Leinster, who treated the child with great inhumanity, until his father obliged the tyrant to put him in the hands of the Bishop of Glendalough, in the county of Wicklow. The holy youth, by his fidelity in corresponding with the divine grace, grew to be a model of virtues. On the death of the bishop, who was also abbot of the monastery, St. Lawrence was chosen abbot in 1150, though he was only twenty-five years old, and governed his numerous community with wonderful virtue and prudence. In 1161 St. Lawrence was unanimously chosen to fill the new metropolitan See of Dublin. About the year 1171 he was obliged, for the affairs of his diocese, to go over to England to see the king, Henry II, who was then at Canterbury. The Saint was received by the Benedictine monks of Christ Church with the greatest honor and respect. On the following day, as the holy archbishop was going to the altar to officiate, a maniac, who had heard much of his sanctity, and who was led on by the idea of making so holy a man another St. Thomas, struck him a violent blow on the head. All present concluded that he was mortally wounded; but the Saint came to himself, asked for some water, blessed it, and having his wound washed with it, the blood was immediately stopped, and the Archbishop celebrated Mass. In 1175 Henry II of England became offended with Roderic, the monarch of Ireland, and St.Lawrence undertook another journey to England to negotiate a reconciliation between them. Henry was so moved by his piety, charity, and prudence that he granted him everything he asked,

and left the whole negotiation to his discretion.

Our Saint ended his journey here below on the 14th of November, 1180,

and was buried in the church of the abbey at Eu, on the confines of Normandy.

The mountains shall drip sweet wine, and all the streams of Judah flow with water;

a fountain shall come forth from the house of the Lord.

Let him who is thirsty come,

let him who wishes take the water of life without price.

The angel showed me the river of the water of life,

bright as crystal,

flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb.

Let him who is thirsty come,

let him who wishes take the water of life without price.

Second Reading

The treatise of St Fulgentius of Ruspe on the forgiveness of sins

Whoever conquers will not be harmed by the second death

In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye as the final trumpet sounds, for the trumpet shall indeed sound, the dead shall rise incorruptible and we shall be changed. In saying “we,” Paul is indicating that the gift of that future change will also be given to those who during their time on earth are united to him and his companions by upright lives within the communion of the Church. He hints at the nature of the change when he says: This corruptible body must put on incorruptibility, this mortal body immortality.

In order, then, that men may obtain the transformation which is the reward of the just,

they must first undergo here on earth a change which is God’s free gift.

Those who in this life have been changed from evil to good are promised that future change as a reward.

Through justification and the spiritual resurrection, grace now effects in them an initial change that is God’s gift. Later on, through the bodily resurrection, the transformation of the just will be brought to completion, and they will experience a perfect, abiding, unchangeable glorification. The purpose of this change wrought in them by the gifts of both justification and glorification is that they may abide in an eternal, changeless state of joy.

Here on earth they are changed by the first resurrection, in which they are enlightened and converted, thus passing from death to life, sinfulness to holiness, unbelief to faith, and evil actions to holy life. For this reason the second death has no power over them. It is of such men that the Book of Revelation says: Happy the man who shares in the first resurrection; over such as he the second death has no power. Elsewhere the same book says: He who overcomes shall not be harmed by the second death.

As the first resurrection consists of the conversion of the heart,

the second death consists of unending torment.

Let everyone, therefore, who does not wish to be condemned to the endless punishment of the second death now hasten to share in the first resurrection.

For if any during this life are changed out of fear of God and pass from an evil life to a good one,

they pass from death to life and later they shall be transformed from a shameful state to a glorious one.

Responsory

You have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

Your real life is Christ,

and when he appears,

then you too will appear with him and share his glory.

You are to think of yourselves as dead to sin but alive to God in union with Christ Jesus our Lord.